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How to right click on Mac the way you want

Christopher Nolan
Christopher NolanOriginal
2025-03-21 11:03:12659browse

Detailed explanation of the right-click method for Mac computers: more than one!

A seemingly simple question - how to right-click on a Mac? In fact, there are many ways: use the Control key, Apple mouse, a magic trackpad, etc. In addition, there are many third-party tools that can help you completely reorganize your Mac gestures and set shortcuts that match the way you work.

Did you know that you can even use your iPhone as your mouse! You can also replace right-click with more convenient keyboard shortcuts so you don't have to move your hands away from the keyboard at all.

Let's dive into how to correctly modify the right click of your Mac.

How to right click on Mac the way you want

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Use Control to right-click on your Mac

If you always have one hand on the keyboard and the other on the mouse or trackpad, you might be happy to know that you can combine the two to achieve right clicks.

Press and hold the Control key on the keyboard to switch your normal left-click to right-click. This trick can be useful when you need to quickly switch clicks, for example, by holding down and releasing the Control key, you may be faster than switching two clicks on the trackpad.

Control Click the shortcut key is enabled by default and is available for any mouse or trackpad you may use. Try it!

How to right-click on Mac mouse

When you use a normal non-Apple mouse, right-clicking has no problem. There are two buttons, left and right buttons, just right click.

However, Apple's mouse has a buttonless design, so it can be confusing at first. In fact, it works the same as any other mouse. So if you click anywhere to the right of the mouse, it will produce a right click. Left-click. No surprises here!

In fact, Apple's mouse functions are much more than clicks. Of course, you can scroll. But you can also zoom (double-click with one finger), switch between pages (swipe left or right with one finger), switch between full-screen applications (swipe left or right with two fingers) and enable Mission Control (double-click with two fingers).

How to right click on Mac the way you want

There is another way to right-click on a Mac. You can easily open the drop-down menu with additional features using shortcut keys.

Here's how to right-click on your Mac by changing accessibility settings:

  1. On your Mac, go to Apple Menu > System Settings > Accessibility
  2. Then click Pointer Control > Alternative Pointer Operation. Turn on the switch
  3. To change the key assigned to the alternative pointer operation, click the “i” button next to the switch.

How to right click on Mac the way you want

You can also use face or head movements detected by your Mac's built-in or connected camera to move the pointer.

  1. On your Mac, go to Apple Menu > System Settings > Accessibility
  2. Then click Pointer Control > Head Pointer. Turn on the switch
  3. To change the key assigned to the alternative pointer operation, click the “i” button next to the switch.

How to right click on Mac the way you want 4. Click the “i” button to set options, for example: select how you want the pointer to follow your face or head movement, pointer speed, edge distance, camera options, etc.

How to right click on Mac the way you want

Right-click enhancer for Mac

While exploring your Mac, you may notice that some of the options you like that appear in the Windows right-click menu are missing in the Mac right-click menu, especially when creating new Office documents such as Excel, PowerPoint, or Word files with a simple right-click. don’t worry! You should try iBoysoft MagicMenu, a powerful right-click menu enhancer with a wide range of features that can expand and enrich your Mac right-click menu, provide a better user experience and improve your productivity.

This versatile tool allows you to easily make the right-click menu of your Mac the way you want, by adding some shortcuts to it, including new file, quick access, copy to, move to, screenshots, copy files, and more.

How to right click on Mac the way you want

Now you know how to right-click on iMac, MacBook and other devices. But did you know that you can right-click on your Mac with your iPhone? Using Remote Mouse is easy.

Right-click on Mac using iPhone

Remote Mouse is a clever utility that turns your iPhone into a proper input device for your Mac. When you download apps for your Mac and iPhone, you can type, scroll, zoom and click directly from your phone. The cursor can be moved by moving the iPhone in the air. You can also input voice into any app, change volume, control several Macs at the same time, and customize other operations.

Finally, when you're too tired to reach the keyboard while watching a movie - you don't have to do that!

How to right click on Mac the way you want

How to right-click on Mac trackpad using two fingers

If you have used a laptop or trackpad from other manufacturers, they usually have physical left and right buttons. Again, this is not the case with Apple.

You first notice that the magic trackpad is just a solid surface. But don't be fooled - it has a much greater potential than it seems at first.

In fact, the Magic Trackpad has even more built-in gestures than the Apple mouse. First, you can choose between clicking and touching, so the left click can be a finger click or a finger touching. Similarly, you can enable right-clicking on your Mac by clicking or touching with two fingers.

Here are some other features that may be of interest to you:

  • Double-click with two fingers to enlarge. You can also pinch it with two fingers to zoom.
  • Rotate by moving two fingers
  • Slide two fingers to scroll
  • Switch between browser pages by swiping left or right with two fingers
  • Drag with three fingers (need to be enabled in the auxiliary function)
  • Open Notification Center by sliding two fingers from the right edge
  • Find items in the dictionary by touching three fingers
  • Show desktop by opening your thumb and three fingers
  • Open the starter by pinching your thumb and three fingers
  • Enable Mission Control by swiping up with four fingers
  • Open the application by swiping down with four fingers Exposé
  • Switch between full-screen applications by swiping left or right with four fingers

Please read also:

  • Change the scrolling direction on your Mac
  • How to use Bettertouchtool
  • How to scroll on your Macbook
  • Customize trackpad gestures on your Mac

How to fully customize your Mac gestures

If the number of gestures provided by the Apple mouse and Magic Trackpad isn't enough for you, or if you want completely custom gestures to fit your workflow perfectly — you can do that, and you can use an app like Swish.

Swish is a premium but easy to use controller that greatly expands the possibilities of a normal trackpad. By default, it adds 28 new gestures, from pinching to full screen to double-clicking to hide. However, the most valuable feature of Swish is window control. Just use your trackpad and you can create a perfect window grid of pixels of all sizes to automatically use all space on the screen, even multiple screens. The best part – you can still use your Apple mouse or Magic Trackpad.

How to right click on Mac the way you want

Another more customizable gesture utility is BetterTouchTool.

BetterTouchTool is the standard for customizing Mac gestures and shortcut keys on the market. It can use input devices, from TouchBar to remote triggers (such as iPhones), and create sequences of shortcuts of any level of complexity to produce specific results in any application. All features exist in an intuitive interface where you can gradually configure as many new shortcuts as possible. Additionally, you can even extend the possibility of BetterTouchTool using AppleScript.

How to right click on Mac the way you want

Use Pie Menu to extend your Mac shortcut keys.

If you want to further customize your Mac gestures, the Pie Menu is an excellent addition. With just a shortcut key, you can trigger a radial menu around the cursor, providing application-specific actions tailored to what you are working on. It's perfect when you want to switch tabs with your keyboard or switch windows quickly with your keyboard, all without remembering different shortcuts for each app.

As you can see, there is a lot to discuss when it comes to enabling Mac right clicks. You can do this using your mouse, trackpad, combinations of these and your keyboard, and your phone (using Remote Mouse).

Also, don't miss out on the great opportunity to expand shortcuts and use apps like Swish, BetterTouchTool, iBoysoft MagicMenu, and Pie Menu to enrich the right-click menu of your Mac.

Best of all, Remote Mouse, Swish, BetterTouchTool and Pie Menu are available to you for free via the Setapp’s seven-day trial. Setapp is a leading application platform with over 240 curated Mac and iOS applications covering dozens of categories from finance to productivity to coding. Explore the full collection and try any app for free to find your new favorites.

FAQ

How to right-click on a Mac is a much more complicated issue than at first glance. So here are some answers to the most common questions.

What are the right-click menu options?

A pop-up context menu ready to provide quick shortcuts that developers think users might want.

How to right-click on Mac without a mouse?

If you don't have a mouse available (for example, the battery is out of power), you can still use the trackpad or even right-click on your phone if you have an app like Remote Mouse installed.

How to right-click on copy and paste on Mac?

When you right-click on your Mac in most applications, you can choose to copy or paste content from the clipboard. Simply select Copy in one app and paste in another app. If you prefer to use keyboard shortcuts, copy as Command C , paste as Command V .

Which key on your Mac is right click?

For using the mouse, you can right-click by pressing the key to the right of the mouse. For the trackpad, you can touch it with two fingers at the same time. Another option is to hold down the Control key on the keyboard and click with the left mouse button or trackpad.

The image format remains the same.

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